This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

A 55-year-old mother of four, Semret was stabbed multiple times in the pouring rain on Oct. 23, 2012 in a laneway near her Cabbagetown home. She was on her way back from the night shift at a downtown hotel where she worked as a cleaner.

The pair knew each other from staying at the same refugee shelter after arriving in Canada from Eritrea.

“There is nothing that I have done. There is nothing that I did,” Zekarias told Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer through an interpreter.

Article Continued Below

He said Semret was “nothing but a friend” and that he plans to appeal.

Zekarias is still facing a second-degree murder charge for killing Rigat Ghirmay, a woman he lived with, allegedly because she became suspicious that he had killed Semret.

“A chapter it seems will never close until we know the reasons why the events of that morning transpired,” Ntahobali said in a victim impact statement read by Crown attorney Mary Humphrey.

“As long as that remains a mystery, there is no real closure for us, no real end to the emotional turbulence that we enter from time to time when thoughts of my mother surface.”

He said his mother’s main goal was to save enough money to pay for her children’s tuition and to eventually buy a house.

The court also heard from a friend of Semret’s, a cousin and her former employer, who all spoke of her kind and quiet nature, and of her emphasis on hard work.

The judge said that by all accounts, Semret was a contributing member of society, looking to start a better life in Canada.

“We still have a natural desire to know the reasons for the act, so that we can try to have some understanding of what had happened,” said Nordheimer. “Why did this murder happen? We simply do not know and will probably never know.”

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com